‘Government, COREN should enforce policies on construction’

Causes of building collapse

The major problem that causing building collapse is the issue of design and the construction of building by an incompetent contractor. Most times, you find out that contractors people engage for construction do not follow the normal procedures, where they need to be supervised by competent engineers. Where this is lacking in any construction process, there is bound to be building collapse. You will see that if it requires concrete mix to be tested by competent engineers, you wouldn’t find a qualified engineer that tests the concrete work on site such that the contractor can do anything at site and get away with it. You find out that they put up poor quality work and obviously there will be problems including cracks on the wall.

What can COREN and government do?

Well, they should enforce laid-down policies for construction. Anybody that engages in construction must be qualified and should be supervised by competent consultants and ensure that adequate procedures are followed during the construction process.

Construction materials testing laboratories

No, we have testing laboratories in Nigeria, even in University of Lagos (UNILAG) where we conduct test for concrete, steels, even water and all other building materials. We also have foundation construction that does similar thing. So, with that, I think it’s considerably okay for Lagos because everybody takes his construction materials to those areas and they are tested and given certificates and results come out after seven days or thereafter.

I am not sure of other states in the country, but I am sure of Lagos and Abuja, because for our projects in Abuja, we have laboratories where they test all these materials but I think government should ensure that those laboratories are well-equipped to undertake such tests.

Possible increase of such laboratories

Well, two may not be enough for Lagos. The city needs to have four or five of such laboratories to carry out perfect construction materials test.

Tillyard’s plans for construction industry

Our plan in Tillyard Nigeria, being the leader in the industry, is to harmonise all the facilities we have on ground so that we continue to lead in the quantity surveying industry. Everybody knows that quantity surveying is about cost. One thing we develop is to have a good database where we can project construction cost for whatever design; we will be able to derive from our database to project the right cost of construction. We are therefore, extensively working on our database, which is a bane of cost forecast in this profession.

Any Nigerian partner for Tillyard?

Tillyard is a worldwide organisation. It’s an independent group, we have Tillyard in London, US, Australia, Hong Kong, Sydney, but each company is independent. We can only call on each other’s associates for information, for help and for whatever we require. Even jobs are sourced from each other. If some clients go to Tillyard in US from Nigeria, the US company will liaise with us to carry out any project in Nigeria for cost information and for expert advice.

Tillyard impact on quantity surveying and construction industry

Quantity surveying is cost-related; we are normally regarded as construction accountant in the industry, and you know what an accountant does anyway. We ensure that we give clients accurate cost, we prepare bill of quantities to get construction cost and we monitor the cost throughout the duration of the project.